Dude Restores ’80s Centipede Arcade Cabinet and I Want to Play

I loved the arcades back in my youth, at least when my dad would let me raid his stash of quarters and go. I had a particular penchant for Centipede mostly because it had a trackball rather than joysticks, and for some reason that was awesome to elementary school me. A dude named Tony Temple laid hands on an original Atari Centipede arcade cabinet and decided to restore the thing to pristine condition.

The cabinet was in decent, but rough shape and needed lots of cleaning. He took a few pictures to show us how the process works. I’d have rather had a video, but whatevs.

It looks like some of the steps required soap and water, something that was strictly banned from the arcades.

At least the awesome cabinet graphics were in good shape and survived the restoration. The front portion where the coin holder goes had to be replaced, however. Check out the completed cabinet below, and the full restoration process on Tony Temple’s website.